During the NBA offseason, Boston Celtics center Kevin Garnett is rarely seen and barely heard from. I envision him growing a beard down to his belly button, befriending a colony of volleyballs and creating a list of pros and cons – the pluses and minuses of returning for at least one more season to the game of basketball.

It appears Garnett can cross out one potentially major con, because coming back for another campaign no longer seems probable to require rehabilitation from offseason surgery. Though it had been feared that Garnett would need an operation for bone spurs in his foot and ankle, the team now believes rest should be enough treatment.

“I think there was some question whether he was going to have surgery on his foot,” president of basketball operations Danny Ainge told the Boston Herald on Friday at the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, “but the last I heard, which was a few days ago, is that he won’t need surgery.”

In addition to the bone spurs, Garnett suffered from a list of minor maladies, some of which went undisclosed. He missed 10 out of Boston's final 13 regular season games, and was limited during the playoffs as Boston fell in the first round for the first time since acquiring him in 2007.

During the Celtics' Game 2 loss, because that was how things were going for him, Garnett came down with a hip pointer; though he experienced obvious discomfort, he wasn't forced into missing any more contests. Throughout the playoffs, Garnett's teammates and coaches regularly raved about the amount of treatment he underwent just so he could suit up.

Garnett still hasn't decided whether to return to the Celtics next season. But the list of cons presumably became shorter with this latest news.